It's official: Grandparents are good for children

It's a humorous anecdote, but it has a more serious side to it, which is that this is what kids are missing out on when they estrange themselves from their extended family. I guess you might call it "the rich tapestry of family life" or something like that. My kids will probably never meet my adventurous uncle or their cousins in Australia, and their children will never receive cool Australian gifts like I did. And they will never know what they are missing. I guess that's their loss.

Yes I know what you mean DogWhisperer. Mr. S. has four siblings and between them there are six children so our GC have ten cousins that they'll never know in addition to us their GP's and a GGM they never met and the only uncle they'll know is DS who lives in Aus.

Did he ever discuss his motivation for moving there Dogwhisperer? Were there opportunities that weren't available here or did he need to get away from family?

Or perhaps he had many reasons that were never discussed...

InRainbows

Did he ever discuss his motivation for moving there Dogwhisperer? Were there opportunities that weren't available here or did he need to get away from family?

You know what - you've aroused my curiosity so I think I'll ask him. We have kind of lost touch with him, not because anyone estranged anyone but because we have been busy with life, people have died or moved away, and so on. So I found an old gmail address for him dating back to 2011 which I think is the last time anyone heard from him, and I sent him an email. It hasn't bounced back marked "user unknown" (yet) so if I get an answer to your question, I'll tell you.

I hope my curiosity doesn't cause any issues for you. I also have family abroad and I have never really asked them either apart from what they volunteered at the time and now I wonder if there was more to it.

I had an elderly aunt who left Ireland in the 50s and rarely came back to visit. She was quite open about her reasons. She said catholicm was too oppressive and her parents too controlling. She wanted to live her life without judgement.
She did just that and when she came back for brief visits she was unapologetic and took no criticism from anyone!

InRainbows, I am pleased to report that I have an answer to your question and it's all good. I was worried that I might have missed the boat and my uncle in Australia might be pushing up the daisies by now (he is 83) but apparently not, he is still alive and well and working on the latest edition of his law textbook. The "estrangement" story (according to my uncle) was all nonsense; he applied for a PhD scholarship at the Australian National University, went over there, he was subsequently offered a full time job at the university, got married, and the rest as they say is history. So the lesson from that is: don't believe anything about estrangement until you have heard both sides of the story.

Also, I now have an extended family in Australia in the form of two cousins and their children and partners. The Aussies seem a cheery lot and TBH I feel more like hanging out with them than with my own miserable, ungrateful, narcissistic kids, unless the latter go and get themselves personality transplants.

We will try to stay in touch from now on. All (well, mostly) thanks to GransNet.

Other gran and I were congratulating ourselves yesterday because of how well our grandson has turned out as he finishes school.
He has avoided many of the teenage disasters and had had 2 very different sets of input from the 2 grans who each had him for 2 days a week from age 1.

.

How wonderful that you've reconnected with your uncle DogWhisperer .

You did say that losing touch wasn't about estrangement but for a variety of reasons in your post of 9.06. which often happens.
I'm not comfortable with ^don't believe anything about estrangement until you have heard both sides of the story^when it comes to this forum, because we only do hear one side which is to be expected.

You must be very proud of your GS kircubbin and rightly so .

I posted a suggestion on one of the estranged kids' forums "you should listen to both sides of the story" and got a similar reaction!

I often read but rarely post but appreciate all those who take the time to post and continue threads. I spend my time hanging on a thread to fit in and see my young GC when I am allowed. They appear to adore me as much as I adore them and that seems to be the main problem/dilemma for the parents which is very sad. I have tried to evaluate the situation taking all emotion out. My general observations are that many adult children now see extended family relationships as purely transactional to pick up or drop to fit with their very busy social lives and motivated often by money and usefulness. Yes there is always a reason behind estrangement but the reason that half the estranged AC don’t tell their estranged parents why is because they know deep down there isn’t a justified or adequate reason for it. Most estranged GP will listen and adjust their behaviour if they know the cause but were unaware. The AC simply have more fun with some relatives over others, they also associate with relatives they think they will get more from and don’t have time or the interest to invest in others. That is fine for them but the GC can be the losers especially if they have a natural bond with the estranged GP and this is ignored or worse they deliberately damage that special bond. One thing is for sure, nothing stays the same, relationships change and adapt and hope and love keeps me invested. I often feel I should step back completely to avoid the constant painful gaslighting used to manipulate situations however I am aware of it now and have chosen to remain quiet, get on with my own life, try not to take it personally or become defensive and grab with both hands the few opportunities to still see my GC. I often feel my AC wants to push me enough to cause a row so they can use it to cut me off and then blame me. It is a struggle and very painful when I love my AC but have realised we both have very different ways of looking at life and family. I hope in time that we can become more respectful of our differences and that as the GC grow they are given the opportunity to receive my unconditional love and caring about their lives independently of their parents. AC who cut out GP or favour one set of GP over another may find it backfires on them when those GC become adults themselves. I spent decades disliking my mothers mother because of how she was talked about. Years later the fog lifted, my eyes opened and I relied on observations and action over gossip, I used my own brain and sadly realised how my own mother was the problem. She deprived me of that relationship and I did feel resentful towards her for that loss. As an adult I was fortunate enough to get many years of love with that GP and cared for her when she was elderly until she passed. She never once spoke badly of my mother and neither did I. I also think that GP on each side can create problems and the AC don’t know how to manage it, they can compete for ‘control’ and dominance of the GC using bribes and threats to coerce and with often several sets of GP and step GP involved I understand why some AC choose to go it alone and avoid all of them. It is a seemingly growing problem though and for those affected quite devastating.

The thing I see on here so many times is, the AC do say why they’re estranging their parents, the parents just don’t wanna believe their reasons. They “can’t remember” doing or saying what the AC says they did. So now the AC has “no reason” in their parents eyes for estranging.

What i see, lot of times is that adult children just cut parents off with no discussion at all.
i also see a lot of adukt children who believe anyone who is a grandparent is in the wrong, and will go to great lengths to "prove" it.

They claim to be happy not to have parents in their lives, but make a beeline in order to have a go at other parents.